The present invention relates to a portable cart for transporting highly sensitive equipment, such as a laser used in ophthalmological surgeries. The cart includes the ability to be secured in a truck or other vehicle for transport to various locations and subsequent removal of the portable cart with the ophthalmic laser for delivery to a doctor's office or clinic to use and operate the laser as desired.
Lasers have been used increasingly in a variety of ophthalmological surgeries. One of their most well-known uses is in LASIK surgeries for correcting myopia, hypermetropia, and astigmatism. The lasers used in the aforementioned procedures are large and can be quite heavy. Often the laser used in a LASIK surgery is an excimer laser. The excimer lasers and associated equipment may be particularly large and heavy.
Many such ophthalmic lasers are asymmetrical in addition to being large and heavy. The asymmetry is largely attributed to an overhanging arm that is used during ophthalmic surgeries and placed above an operating space, often a patient bed. The overhanging arm is usually placed above a patient's eye during a procedure because the arm may include the incision laser itself. The overhanging arm is a necessary component of the device, but it presents some logistical challenges.
Ophthalmic lasers and their associated equipment are expensive. As such, clinics and other surgery sites often include only one laser for performing the aforementioned surgeries. The equipment is often transported to the site disassembled, before being assembled on site. The equipment is usually assembled on site because the lasers including the overhanging arm and associated equipment is difficult to maneuver through a facility. Specifically, the lasers and associated equipment may not be able to fit through doorways such that they may be moved from one room to another within a facility. This often is principally due to the overhanging arm extending from the laser equipment, and the asymmetry resulting therefrom. Therefore, because the surgery sites often only have one such laser, the lasers are confined to one room as a result of their difficulty in being maneuvered.
Because the lasers and their associated equipment are particularly sensitive, self-contained portable carts for transporting the aforementioned ophthalmological lasers and associated sensitive equipment such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,914 (“the '914 patent”) were developed. Such portable carts are able to securely and safely transport highly sensitive equipment such as ophthalmological lasers from one location to another using an air cushion suspension system. Air cushions contained in a mobile cart act as shock absorbers for when the cart and its highly sensitive equipment are in transit. Multiple carts securing highly sensitive equipment may be secured within a truck trailer or other transportation means. The cart may be removably mounted to the floor of the truck cab to prevent the cart and highly sensitive equipment from jostling therein and damaging the equipment during transportation.
The cart from the prior art '914 patent includes a mechanism for locking the cart down in a truck cab where the cart is housed and transported from one location to another. In the prior art reference, the mechanism is driven by a power activated retractable arm or pin that engages a floor support of the truck floor. While the power activated mechanism eliminates the requirement of manually releasing the retractable arm from the support, in the event of a power failure, unloading the carts from a truck cab can become difficult without damaging a cart, floor support, retractable arm, or the truck cab floor.
A solution that alleviates some of the aforementioned issues involving ophthalmological lasers and their associated equipment is desired. More particularly, a solution that allows the laser and associated equipment to fit through doorways such that it may be moved from room to room within a facility is desired. Moreover, a solution that provides a manual release within a truck cab is desired so as to provide a means for unloading equipment in the event of a power failure.